Seconds after seeing a young man shooting a semiautomatic pistol into the crowd, Eric Fuller dove to the ground, thinking playing dead was the only thing that could save him.

"My thoughts were, 'He's going to reload and walk over and shoot us all in the head,' " Fuller said Tuesday, recovering at home from a gunshot to the knee. He was one of the victims wounded in a shooting that killed six people and critically injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Fuller and 11 others.

Fuller considers himself lucky. He survived with a deep, flesh wound. The bullet missed his kneecap and any other bones, entering the fleshy part of the knee and lodged itself into his thigh. His back was also wounded. Fuller, 63, left his tennis game about half an hour earlier than normal on Saturday morning to ask Giffords a few questions at the "Congress on Your Corner" event. He said Giffords appeals to two of his likes.

"She is pro-labor and a fiscal conservative," Fuller said.

Fuller, who works as a signature collector for political initiatives, was about 10 to 15 feet away from Giffords, with a notebook in hand, talking to Giffords' volunteers about the handouts on the table.

"I heard the shots and looked over to where (Giffords) had been standing," Fuller said. "I saw an athletic young man pumping and taking aim. I was seated and dove to the ground to play dead."

Fuller was hit as he dove. A few seconds of silence followed. He got up in a daze, looked around and decided that because he didn't have any medical training to help the others, walked to his car and drove himself to the nearest hospital.

Now that he's had a few days to think, Fuller said he's outraged that Giffords was the target of an attack.

"She is open and receptive to taking to the public. Even those who disagree with her," Fuller said. "I'm disgusted with Republicans for helping boost a hysterical climate. An unhinged lunatic absorbed these ideas from somewhere."

Fuller doesn't consider himself a religious man, but he said he said a prayer for Giffords.